Summer

Happy Earth Day!

Evening, Late Summer

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2014 was a great year for hay in Michigan. Good for the farmers, and good for me. My dad took me to see this view, thinking I would like it. Yup!

Cows and Crows

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I am pretty sure that one of these tiny calves is the one that we saw a few weeks ago, moments after his birth. It seems odd that there are TWO calves this time of year, but there they are. It was one of those days with a bite to the air, but the sun still warm enough to make you happy. My favorite parts of this painting are the crows flying through.

Marsh on the Back Way to Big Rapids

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The countryside to the northeast of Big Rapids, Michigan, is just gorgeous. The road curves around the edge of the marsh here, and it’s a good spot to stop and admire the view. While painting today, I was listening to an interview with Ted Genoways about the environmental consequences of petroleum mining in the Canadian tar sands. Maybe it's because my head was already in the North with the painting, but I found it particularly compelling. And very scary. I highly recommend listening here, or reading his article in the December issue of Outside magazine.

Clouds Over Hemlock Hill

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Summer is here—green, green, green! Thank goodness the copper beech, smack dab in the middle of the field, contributes a little purple to the mix. There isn’t a lot of farmland in this area, so I really appreciate being able to wander about Hemlock Hill Farm. Plus, they sell amazing organic meat, including the best bacon I’ve tasted in a long time.

Morning on Cleveland Drive No. 3

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This one is from a photo I took a week or two ago, when the trees were flowering like mad. Now it’s mostly green, though there is still a bit of nice variation in the greens. I painted it on canvas, which I like for its texture, but I definitely do not like the give of canvas under my brush; I much prefer a nice, hard board.

Morning on Cleveland Drive No. 1

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Cleveland Drive gently wends its way from the south end of our town to the north. This time of year it’s at its most beautiful, especially with the morning sun lighting up the flowering trees and all the new leaves. This section of road is unofficially called Five Corners, though from this angle you can’t see all three streets that converge here. (Plus, I chose not to paint the stop sign.)

Berkshires

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I did a lot of oohing and ahhing on a recent drive through western Massachusetts. Spring hadn’t yet started turning this part of the country green, but the blues and ochres in the mountains and fields were just gorgeous, not to mention the scale of the open spaces. It was a super-windy day—I could feel the wind buffeting the car as I drove—but it made for some beautiful, fast-moving clouds and shadows.

On the Way to School

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I like for my daughter to walk to school on days as nice as these, but there are just some mornings when we don’t get out the door in time. When I do have to drive her, this view, with the flowering cherries and magnolias, and the Hudson River in the distance, always makes me exclaim, “LOOK at that!”